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The Blue Caftan
A married tailor falls for his younger apprentice in Maryam Touzani’s richly textured and sweepingly beautiful exploration of love, desire and tradition.
Director: Maryam Touzani
Overview
Mina (Lubna Azabal) and her husband Halim (Saleh Bakri) run a small shop selling traditional, hand-stitched caftans in Salé, Morocco. To help with customer demand, the couple hire young apprentice Youssef (Ayoub Missioui) – but complications arise when Mina notices a deeper connection forming between the master tailor and his protégé.
Hand-stitched with loving care, this mature, resonant drama is the latest from Touzani, writer-director of 2019’s Adam. The Blue Caftan is an emotionally complex, richly empathetic depiction of a partnership sustained through storms and challenges, with Azabal and Bakri exuding a warm, gently crackling chemistry. Superb performances, sly humour, Virginie Surdej’s glowing photography and a strong throughline of social defiance make this a profoundly satisfying pleasure.
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